EDITORIAL: Sisolak needs to finish the job at dental board
In November, a committee of the Nevada Board of Dental Examiners fired its executive director and general counsel after a Review-Journal investigation revealed the panel was more interested in shielding dentists than acting on patient complaints. Like George Costanza, however, both women apparently figure that if they keep showing up, nobody will notice. Instead, they continue to demonstrate why they’re unfit for service.
On Tuesday, the Review-Journal’s Arthur Kane reported that dental board Executive Director Debra Shaffer-Kugel emailed a Reno resident who had filed a complaint against a Northern Nevada practitioner and threatened to have the matter dropped if he didn’t stop talking to the press.
“Please be advised … that if you or your representative or agent should publicly disseminate or other failure [sic] to maintain the confidentially of the complaint and/or any documents received concerning the complaint,” Ms. Shaffer-Kugel wrote to patient Steven Garrity, “the failure to maintain confidentiality will result in the dismissal of your complaint.”
Mr. Garrity said he decided to talk about his case because he is frustrated the board has yet to act after four months. “It’s not about protecting the patient,” he told Mr. Kane. “It’s about protecting the dentist.”
Melanie Bernstein Chapman, the dental board’s attorney, emailed Mr. Kane on Monday to defend the effort to silence Mr. Garrity. “The confidentiality is not for the purpose of protecting the licensee,” she wrote. “Rather, the confidentiality guaranteed by statute and regulation, which the Board asks, and complainants agree in writing to maintain, is to protect the integrity of the investigation and any action that may ultimately be taken.”
This is utter nonsense. Any attorney with even a vague familiarity with the First Amendment would understand that a state licensing board has no authority whatsoever to impose gag orders on Nevadans who file complaints — regardless of what is printed on the dental board’s complaint forms. The confidentiality provision itself undermines the board’s mission by potentially discouraging patients from coming forward.
Gov. Steve Sisolak has repeatedly expressed exasperation with the dental board and has supported an overhaul. Ms. Shaffer-Kugel and Ms. Chapman were supposed to be out as of Dec. 5, but they continue to collect paychecks. The governor isn’t talking. Neither is Ms. Shaffer-Kugel. Ms. Chapman maintained that attorney-client privilege precluded her from commenting. Nevertheless, Ms. Shaffer-Kugel’s actions in regard to Mr. Garrity speak volumes, as does Ms. Chapman’s defense of them.
It’s now up to Gov. Sisolak to finish the job.
